HESSTON — The Hesston High School boys’ basketball team had a few tense moments in the first half of its Class 4A sub-state quarterfinal game against Clay Center Tuesday in Hesston, but the Swathers settled down in the second half to claim a 71-45 win.?Hesston, 19-2, advances to the semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday in Abilene.?“I think we turned the ball over more times in the first half than we did in most of the games we played this year,” Hesston coach Greg Raleigh said. “We came out a little bit flat. We haven’t practiced in several days. That was the key to that. We’re usually pretty good defensively. They hit a lot of threes. We weren’t prepared for them to shoot the ball quite that well. They showed an ability that we haven’t seen before.”?Tyler McCartney led Hesston with 22 points. Ryan Schadler scored 17 points. Freshman Scott Duerksen came off the bench to score 14. Hesston was 26 of 42 from the field, seven of 11 from 3-point range.?“Teams have been packing it in on us,” Greg Raleigh said. “With my son Grant out, we had to make some adjustments.”?Clay Center, 3-18, was led by Dalton Haist with 16 points and Caleb Carlsen with 12. The Tigers were 17 of 46 shooting, six of 16 from 3-point range.?Down 8-7 early, Hesston ended the quarter on a 7-0 run. The Swathers extended the run by two more points in the second period. Up by nine, Hesston turnovers sparked a 6-0 Clay Center run. The Swathers came back with a run of their own, capped by a Wyatt McKinney putback at the buzzer to put Hesston ahead 32-21 at intermission.?Hesston hit 11 of 16 from the field in the first half, while Clay Center was eight of 19. The Tigers had 14 turnovers in the first half to 11 for Hesston.?The Swathers continued to pull away early in the third quarter, leading by as many as 18. Clay Center got back within 15 at the end of the period, 52-37.?The Swathers continued to pull away in the fourth quarter. Both teams dumped their bench with about 2 1/2 minutes to play.?Hesston now plays the winner of today’s Concordia-Chapman game.?“They’re both good teams,” Greg Raleigh said. “Chapman just came off a win over Abilene during the last game of the regular season. That’s a tough sub-state. ... We’ll have to be ready. It will be nice to get back in the gym. We can’t practice when we don’t have school. We just have to play hard. I know both of those teams have pretty good size. We’re pretty young and not very physically strong. We have to rebound well.”